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A new survey of how domestic Canadian students experience the internationalization of the campus by a Toronto-based consultancy finds mixed results. Of the 1,398 students surveyed by Higher Education Strategy Associates, 43 percent counted at least one international student among the five closest friends they made at university. Overall, the study found that students generally have positive attitudes toward the diversity that international students bring to their social lives and the classroom. Read more...

By Maria Shine Stewart. If only life on campus were so simple that an “ABC” device could head off all the big problems. Yet, prompt attention to small issues can prevent at least some issues from morphing into something harder to fix. Browse higher education headlines and see how often a human relations glitch or an unkindness snowballed; simple flurries turned into major squalls. I offer these A through Z tips after 30-plus years of working in academe. If you think of additional suggestions, please chime in.
Alumni assertiveness. Colleges wine and dine their graduates to sustain good will and/or solicit donations. Nevertheless, few alumni lack memories of frustrations that rankled them while they were in the undergraduate or graduate ranks. Perhaps then they felt little voice to improve that condition. Read more...

By Cheryl E. Ball. If you are a graduate faculty member at a Ph.D.-granting institution, part of your job is advising Ph.D. students. Despite the humorous warnings about pursuing advanced graduate work, one of our goals as Ph.D.-granting institutions is to help our students get jobs. And, depending on which field you are in, graduates may take jobs in the private or public sectors, and some will enter academe. Read more...

By Scott Jaschik. If you are leading a class and imagine that students seem more distracted than ever by their digital devices, it's not your imagination. And they aren't just checking their e-mail a single time. A new study has found that more than 90 percent of students admit to using their devices for non-class activities during class times. Less than 8 percent said that they never do so. The study is based on a survey of 777 students at six colleges and universities. Barney McCoy, associate professor of broadcasting at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, conducted the study and The Journal of Media Education has just published the results. Read more...

By Michael Stratford. The array of different repayment options on federal student loans should be replaced with a single, income-based repayment system that automatically deducts payments from borrowers’ paychecks, according to a new policy proposal published Monday by the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project
The paper argues that the current federal loan system (including its income-based repayment options) does not do a good job of preventing defaults because it is too complicated and burdens young workers with large payments when they are least able to handle them. Read more...

By Michael Stratford. Even though colleges have slowed the rate at which they raise tuition, the total grant aid available to students has not been able to keep pace with tuition growth, according to two reports released Wednesday by the College Board. Public four-year institutions, after years of sharp increases, raised in-state tuition by only 2.9 percent this year, the smallest one-year increase in more than 30 years. Private, nonprofit four-year colleges increased their sticker price tag by 3.8 percent, which is slightly lower than recent tuition hikes. Read more...

By David Matthews for Times Higher Education. Slowly but surely, South Africa is moving away from the apartheid era’s ethnically segregated campuses and mainly white academic staff.
But two decades on from apartheid’s end, many have argued that change is happening too slowly, and one vice-chancellor is promoting a controversial ranking system intended to spur progress toward an academy that reflects South Africa’s ethnic mix. Read more...

By Carl Straumsheim. Supporters of open-access journals and massive open online courses have been quick to label their initiatives disruptive, but a recent analysis by a York University professor suggests only one of them has the potential to spark considerable change, while the other is likely to remain an alternative alongside traditional offerings.
"Disruptive” has become one of higher education reformers’ favorite adjectives, jostling with “innovative” and “revolutionary” for the top spot. To mark Open Access Week, Richard Wellen, associate professor of business and society at York University in Canada, examines the degree to which open access alternatives in scholarship and research can change their respective areas within higher education. Read more...